Top 16 JavaScript Frameworks to Use in 2024

Making programming a seamless process, JavaScript is transforming the way websites and applications are developed and executed. For the 8th year in a row, this programming language has been listed amongst the most frequently used languages by developers, according to an independent StackOverflow survey conducted last year.

JavaScript frameworks and libraries never cease to amaze the development arena with their wide-ranging functionalities and features. The amount of versatility that these imperatives are bringing to the table for backend/frontend development is worth mentioning. But remember that every framework has its own purpose and capabilities.

As such, choosing the best JavaScript framework becomes a difficult and time-consuming process for businesses. But not anymore with this blog that’ll take you through a comprehensive list of frameworks, their pros and cons, and why using them is beneficial. You’ll also get to learn about a few powerful JavaScript tools but first, let’s start with understanding some basics.

What are JavaScript Frameworks?

A JavaScript framework is a technology that helps developers in exploiting code and satisfying unique project requirements. It’s basically an application framework that makes development easier and more configurable.

For instance, think about building a house where you need to use all the available construction materials and create everything from scratch. However, this shall cost you a lot and prove laborious. But if you have a ready-to-use base, design, and collection of bricks then you can definitely finish the creation in less time and money.

The same goes for most of the popular JavaScript frameworks. They have the potential to quickly adapt to the development environment and make routine task completion easier. Avoiding the hassle of writing each code from scratch, you can gain access to pre-written code and successfully use it as the foundation for your app-building.

Top 16 Best JavaScript Frameworks

The below best JavaScript frameworks 2024 compilation shall help you gain enough knowledge to choose the best one for your development project. Let’s take a look.

1. React JS: This JS framework helps developers in rolling out interactive UI for a single-page app (SPA). It represents an indicative, handy, and component-based development environment. By using Virtual DOM, React JS propagates fleet-footed rendering.

Pros:

• Developers can benefit a lot from reusable components.
• It can be seamlessly integrated with various backend and frontend frameworks.
• New features and functionalities are continuously added with the help of huge community support.

Cons:

• Represents a steep learning curve for newbies.
• Continuous evolution makes it difficult for developers to keep up with the pace.

Prominent Websites Built With React JS :

Airbnb, Asana, BBC, Cloudflare, Codecademy, Dropbox, Facebook, Github, Imgur, Instagram, Medium, Netflix, OkCupid, Paypal, Periscope, Pinterest, Product Hunt, Reddit, Salesforce, Scribd, Shopify, Slack, Snapchat, Squarespace, Tesla, The New York times, Typeform, Twitter, Uber, Udemy, WhatsApp, and Zendesk.

2. Vue Js: This highly flexible technology not only works as a comprehensive feature-rich framework but also acts as a view layer with state management as a whole. It’s a tool that offers two-way data binding and helps developers in creating interactive web and mobile apps.  

Pros:

• Its built-in MVC allows easy and quick configuration.
• It’s lightweight and easy to learn.
• It displays strong documentation as compared to other JS frameworks.

Cons:

• Its community of developers is getting skilled day by day.
• It’s still gaining popularity in the US and has limited opportunities.

Prominent Websites Built With Vue Js:

9gag, Adobe, Apple Swift UI, Behance, Bilibili, BMW, Chess, Font Awesome, Gitlab, Hack the Box, Laravel, Laracasts, Louis Vuitton, Namecheap, Netlify, Netguru, Nintendo, Pluralsight, Pornhub, Shien, Stack overflow, Trivago, Trustpilot, Upwork, Wizzair, and Zoom.

3. Angular JS: Angular JS is an Open-Source typescript-enabled tool to develop client-side SPAs. Integrated with a component-based architecture, this platform stands tall as one of the most secure front-end JavaScript frameworks for designing enterprise-grade apps with Angular JS Editors.

Pros:

• It assists an enormous amount of features and out-of-the-box caching to offer fast server performance.
• Its two-way data binding feature helps to establish a strong link between and Model and the View layer.
• Offers seamless enterprise-grade web application development experience.

Cons:

• It’s heavyweight and poses learning challenges for novices.
• Migrating from Angular 1 to the latest version of Angular is a bit complicated.

Prominent Websites Built With Angular JS:

Google, Allegro, Blender, Clickup, Clockify, Delta, Deutsche Bank, DoubleClick, Freelancer, Forbes, Guardian, IBM, Instapage, iStock, JetBlue, Lego, Mailerlite, Microsoft Office, Mixer, Udacity, Upwork, Vevo, Walmart, Weather, WikiWand, Xbox, and YouTube.

4. Ember JS: This Open-Source JS framework is backed by a Model-View-ViewModel (MVVW) architecture strategy. What makes it stand out is its command-line interface tool that offers end-to-end operational productivity.

Pros:

• It offers a basic mechanism to handle APIs.
• Its Convention over Configuration (CoC) approach helps developers to focus on coding rather than configuration.
• Developers can kickstart their projects in Ember with upright documentation and support.

Cons:

•  Newcomers may find it challenging due to its steep learning curve.
•  While developing large-scale apps is easier, Ember proves heavy for small-scale app development.

Prominent Websites Built With Ember JS:

Crowdstrike, Ghost, GroupOn, Heroku, Intercom, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix, Skylight, Square, TED, Twitch, Yahoo, and Zendesk.

5. Preact JS: Similar to React JS, this framework signifies component-based programming style and pattern. Its compatibility with React makes it the best JavaScript framework to opt for. It’s highly recommended to accelerate project performance.

Pros:

• It’s lightweight and offers high performance and efficiency.
• Its CLI tool helps developers in creating new projects easily.
• Its LinkState module supports state change optimization.

Cons:

• It’s still getting popular and is supported by a small community of programmers.
• It offers limited support for propTypes and createClass.

Prominent websites built with Preact JS:

Bluehive, Bustle, Dailymotion, Dev.to, Dominos, Financial Times, GroupOn, Hashi Corp, Housing.com, Lyft, Pepsi, Rocket Chat, Smashing Magazine, Synacor, Sogou Wenen, Tencent, Treebo, and Uber.

6. Svelte JS: With Svelte JS, you can create boilerplate-free components in simple CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code. The framework displays no client-side dependencies and helps developers in building high-end user-friendly applications.

Pros:

• Easy to learn and understand and is small in size.
• It supports faster rendering as compared to its competitors.
• Proves to be SEO-friendly.

Cons:

• It falls short in terms of community and resources.
• Poor debugging due to undeveloped tooling mechanism.

Prominent Websites Built With Svelte JS:

1Password, AB Lab, Absolute Web, Bekchy, BlueHive, Cashfree, Chess, Comigo, Entur, Farmbox, Fusion Charts, Godaddy, HealthTree, Rakuten, Razorpay, and The New York Times.

7. Node JS: It belongs to the list of popular frontend JS frameworks that help in designing full-fledged web, mobile, and hybrid apps. Experts suggest this technology advancement gets intuitive IoT solutions, REST APIs, and desktop programs onboard.

Pros:

• As it uses JavaScript, newbies can easily learn, understand, and practice it.
• The Node packaged modules (NPM) are continuously evolving.
• With Node JS, you can stream large files.

Cons:

• Dealing with a relational database is nothing less than a challenge.
• Not suggested for CPU-intensive tasks and is not scalable.

Prominent Websites Built With Node JS:

LinkedIn, Netflix, Uber, Trello, PayPal, NASA, eBay, Medium, Groupon, Walmart, Mozilla, and GoDaddy.

8. Backbone JS: It’s a lightweight framework that enables your programmers to work on the JS code in a Model View Controller (MVC) manner. It communicates through events that help in writing clean, concise codes and developing dynamic web as well as mobile applications.

Pros:

• It gives full control over performance.
• Developers prefer this framework for designing an intuitive frontend.
• Its library offers good optimization for designing an app.

Cons:

• It runs low on productivity and has an indistinct architecture.
• There are chances of memory leakage while writing code.

Prominent Websites Built With Backbone JS:

Airbnb, Trello, Foursquare, SoundCloud, Bitbucket, Basecamp Calendar, Flowdock, Cocktail Search, Hulu, and Countly.

9. Express JS: One of the key benefits of using the Express JS framework is fast server-side coding. Your developers can complete complex tasks in just a few minutes. It also takes care of dynamic URLs with its active routing mechanism.   

Pros:

• It’s backed by a huge community of developers with decent documentation and resources.
• Developing web-based apps is much faster as compared to other JavaScript frameworks.
• Provides good connectivity with various popular databases such as Redis, MongoDB, etc.   

Cons:

• This framework is not opinionated, which makes it difficult for beginners to learn and practice.
• It does not facilitate any kind of security feature.  

Prominent Websites Built With Express JS:

Accenture, Coursera, Exove, Fox, Godaddy, IBM, Myntra, Nike, Paypal, Pluralsight, Quizup, Ripjar, Sony Playstation, Twitter, Uber, Unsplash, and Yandex.

10. Meteor JS: It showcases all the capabilities of being the best JavaScript framework and is highly preferred for creating a backend effectively. It helps developers to work on the backend without tossing between languages such as Python, PHP, etc.

Pros:

• It’s easy to learn and understand with clear documentation and resources.
• It hosts sought-after libraries and packages.
• It helps to achieve seamless client-server communication.

Cons:

• It lacks a server-side rendering facility.
• There is an absence of the needed support to develop progressive web applications.

Prominent Websites Built With Meteor JS:

Tencent Cloud, Hotmart, Lemlist, Crackwatch, RED by SFR, CodeSignal, Any Run, Telescope, and Escape Client SFR.

11. Next JS: Based on React, this Javascript framework helps in achieving comprehensive server-side rendering. It’s designed with the aim of ‘develop once, run everywhere, and provides static generations as well, making mobile and web app development easier.

Pros:

• Its features like automatic code splitting and hot code reloading improve operational efficiencies.
• Offers good SEO performance due to SSR capability.
• It’s recommended for all types of websites and applications – web, mobile, progressive, etc.

Cons:

• Sometimes you have to deal with performance issues.
• It is precisely designed for React.

Prominent Websites Built With Next JS:

Auth0, Binance, Coinbase, Docker, Github, Hulu, Invision, Magic Leap, Netflix, Sesame, Starbucks, Trulia, Tencent, Twitch, and Uber.

12. Gatsby JS: 

With Gatsby, users can get information from any data source. Instead of being an SSR, this framework broadcasts content on the client side in build time. This helps in offering unmatched security and SEO outputs in the long run.

Pros:

• It maximizes the performance of website and app development.
• It’s SEO-friendly and secure with no additional dependencies.
• It offers plugins for every task with its wide-ranging plugin capacity.

Cons:

• Experts don’t suggest it for building large-scale websites
• You need to acquire some knowledge about React and GraphQI to learn and use Gatsby JS.

Prominent Websites Built With Gatsby JS:

Airbnb, Braun, edx.org, Fabric, Figma, Flamingo, Freecodecamp, Ghost, Hopper, Impossible, Nike, Paypal, React, Segment, Sendgrid, and Snapkit.

13. Nuxt JS: Based on Vue, Nuxt JS stands among the best Open-Source backend JavaScript frameworks with the ability to develop feature-packed web apps. It creates a progressive development environment and is recognized as a Vue enhancer.

Pros:

• It has great potential to develop Universal apps.
• You can start a new project in just a few minutes with its self-initiating setup and configuration.
• It’s supported by a large community of starter kits, libraries, and many APIs.    

Cons:

• Integrating custom libraries is a complex process.
• The documentation and resources are not enough to make a head start.

Prominent Websites Built With Nuxt JS:

Aircall, Amplitude, Backmarket, Bitpay, Bootstrap Vue, Fox News, Gitlab, Icons8, Instrument, MyScript, Nespresso, Note.com, Ozon.ru, Roland Garros, System76, Todoist, Upwork, and Wappalyzer.

14. Jest: An independent stateofjs survey claims Jest to be the best JavaScript framework. Created by Facebook, this technology platform defines the true essence of effortlessness. Developers use it for JS automated testing by coupling it with Selenium.  

Pros:

• It supports auto-mocking and snapshot testing.
• It’s officially managed by React developer tools.
• It carries enough potential for React native testing.

Cons:

• Auto mocking makes it slower.
• Has poor documentation.

Prominent websites built with Jest:

Airbnb, Bla Bla Car, Circle Cl, Facebook, Instagram, Intuit, One football, Revolut, Spotify, Stack, Swat.io, The New York Times, Travel Perk, and Twitter.

15. Mocha: Ideally used for asynchronous testing, the Mocha development framework basically runs on Node JS. It involves serial testing supported by agile and precise reporting. It efficiently supports Test-driven as well as Behaviour-driven development environments.  

Pros:

• It’s highly flexible to finish recurring tasks.
• Stimulates a faster testing environment.
• Its popularity among the JS frameworks is growing with each passing day. 

Cons:

• It represents complex auto-mocking and snapshot testing.
• Excess configuration requirement makes it weaker.

Prominent websites built with Mocha:

Accenture, Algolia, Asana, Clay, Codefirst, Coursera, Netlify, Open Collective, Principal, Third Iron, Triple Byte, Typeform, UX Planet, Webflow, Wix, and Yahoo.

16. Polymer: Our next featured JavaScript framework is Polymer, a free tool developed by Google that enables developers to design visually appealing websites and applications. It’s primarily used for the front end of a website, facilitating data integration in various ways.

Polymer provides a wide range of possibilities for building different types of apps. One of its unique features is the ability to incorporate parts of other websites into your project, making it an exciting tool to work with.

Pros:

• Empowers custom component creation.
• Facilitates the development of high-quality user experiences.
• Eliminates the risk of unnecessary CSS clutter.

Cons:

• Requires specific design for each browser.
• Subpar performance on mobile devices.
• Insufficient or ambiguous error reporting.

Why Use JavaScript Frameworks?

Now that you have come across the pros, cons, and use cases of the above frameworks, here are some detailed insights on why using the best JavaScript framework is becoming the need of the hour.

Global Assistance: JavaScript frameworks are used by beginners as well as seasoned developers all across the globe. Besides, the programming language is supported by a huge community at present.

Well-structured: You need to use JS frameworks to reap the full benefits of its structure. The reason why these frameworks are called structured is the syntax using control flow. It also consists of both block scoping and functions, which is a very unique trait as compared to other frameworks.

Dynamic:  JavaScript is the only programming language that the browser can easily understand. This ability helps the developers to build the browser in a more effective manner.

Object-oriented: Being object-oriented, the best JS framework uses objective prototypes rather than classes for inheritance which helps coders in customizing the classes and direct functions in the code.

Delegative: When you use a JS framework, your project shall assist exhaustive delegation. Your developers can easily write event handlers that retort to users and additional events.

Multipurpose: JavaScript is a programming language that can be optimized for various small as well as large platforms of apps such as game development, animation, retail, etc.

Bonus: Some Useful Must-Know JavaScript Tools

By knowing why you need to use the best JavaScript framework, let’s move forward to understanding some useful JS tools.

Slick: It’s a powerful JS tool that will satisfy all your roundabout requirements. Its carousel represents high scalability and responsiveness. Some features embrace lazy loading, complete accessibility, autoplay, swipes, infinite looping, CSS3, mouse dragging, etc.

Babel: It’s an open-source compiler that can run an old JS standard by converting new JS features. The newer version also supports syntax transformation. Besides, the plugin offers polyfills to back features absent from specific JS environments.

iziModal: This is a lightweight, supple, well-designed, and active modal technology tool that works with jQuery. It can help you notify your users with updates or request information via a popup modal. Also, it comes with various customizations.

ESLint: Even the top JavaScript frameworks have some disadvantages mentioned above. But by using ESLint, your developers can easily overcome them. The tool swiftly counters syntax errors, command-line style problems, etc., by analyzing code statistically.

Shave: The shave is a no-dependency JS tool. It aids in the abbreviating text within HTML elements by aligning a maximum height to fit inside the component correctly. You’ll not lose texts as this tool helps store additional original texts within an unseen element.

Webpack: Your programmers can use this tool to pack JS modules for contemporary apps. The tool also assists in writing code by using them to hold rationally and keep the code clean.